Protecting Londoners from ‘thought crime’ policing (3)

David Kurten: How many people accused of non-crime hate incidents have their details kept on record by the Metropolitan Police?

The Mayor: The table belowoutlines the number of incidents. Without a manual search of each crime report we are unable to confirm how many reports have the personal details of the person suspected of being involved in the incident.
Experience tells us that sometimes incidents of hate can quickly escalate. Without that initial report, police can't build up a picture of offending over a period of time. The Met’s decision to record incidents partially comes from the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report and is supported by College of Policing guidance which was upheld in the recent Humberside Court Case.
The police are required to record hate incidents they are called to that might not amount to a crime. An officer will record the incident on their local force database (CRIS) – not the Police National Computer –and then decide on the appropriate course of action.
The numbers of none - Crime Hate Incidents Recorded between January 2015 - November 2019 is as follows:
Hate Offence - Homophobic Incident

Use of technology

Shaun Bailey: Has MOPAC undertaken any exploratory work to investigate the potential opportunities of using technology more effectively to help fight crime? If so, what were the conclusions?

The Mayor: The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and MOPAC continue to explore all opportunities to use technology to make Londoners safer. Technological innovations include:
Effective use of technology is, however, reliant on capital expenditure. This has seen a significant reduction from £12.4m to £3.3m. The MPS’ ability to effectively fight crime using technology has been hindered by the Governments programme of cuts to capital expenditure.